Ww1 where is the western front

This struggle on the Western Front would eventually bring the United States into the conflict, but not until after three years of slaughter and futility. Its armies were to sweep down through Belgium and northern France toward Paris, like a giant swinging door. On August 4, Germany invaded Belgium, violating its neutrality.

The British upheld their commitment to defend Belgium, and declared war on Germany. However, all Britain could immediately do was to blockade Germany with its navy and to prepare its undersized army for battle. Belgian fought fiercely, but German forces quickly overwhelmed its tiny army and occupied much of the country.

To the southeast, France opened the war by pushing into territory it had lost to Germany in their war. Tens of thousands of Frenchmen fell to German rifle and machine gun fire in wasteful attacks: 27, died on August 22 alone. The Germans then began their sweep into France. The French armies, supported by the small British Expeditionary Force, could not hold them back. By early September, German troops were within sight of Paris.

The Allies launched a desperate counterattack; the Battle of the Marne finally halted the German advance. Finally, both sides ran out of room to maneuver. This line would remain essentially unchanged for over three years. Highly recommended guide book. This book covers everything from how the front was created and the British Army in France, to the battle of Verdun and the last Hundred Days of the war. WW1 Timeline — a detailed timeline of the Great War.

Location of the Battlefields of the Western Front Our map illustrates the battlefield sectors of the Western Front. Before Endeavours Fade by Rose E. Led by incapable officers, French formations blindly groped their way forward without sufficient reconnaissance. Encounter battles favoured the more careful German forces; even when the French won local success, their abysmal command and control meant that successful advances petered out, were unsupported, and were ultimately pushed back by more organized German forces.

Operationally the Germans, under Helmuth von Moltke the Younger , stretched themselves perilously thin chasing after French and British troops in headlong retreat after the initial encounter battles in August. The German plan required a rapid, coordinated sweep that envisioned the First and Second German armies advancing rapidly along the French, British, and Belgian left flank.

Covering such a vast area, however, proved to be very difficult logistically and the German armies began to drift apart. This drift was first noticed by British reconnaissance aircraft and was quickly communicated up through the command structure. The time had come for the Entente forces, which had been rapidly falling back before a seemingly unstoppable German onslaught, to stop and fight. Entente and German forces fought over nearly the entire length of the front, making the Marne one of the largest engagements of the war, as well as one of the most important.

The Germans had no choice but to retreat, stopping at a line behind Verdun, Soissons, and Reims. When renewed French attacks were halted by the once-more cohesive German forces, Joseph Joffre , commander-in-chief of the French army, ordered troops to move to the far left flank and try to outflank the Germans from the north. With no flanks left to turn, the Western Front as we think of it came into being: a solid front from the sea to the Alps, with only one way through: straight ahead.

There were a few attempts to break through this line before the winter weather set in and exhausted, overstretched units became incapable of action. Most notable was the First Battle of Ypres , immortalized in the popular image of German schoolboys marching gleefully in close order to attack.

Despite a more robust artillery preparation than the Germans had been able to muster at Ypres, the French attack was an irredeemable failure. Trench networks could not be broken by hasty offensives, but rather had to be systematically neutralised by concentrated heavy artillery fire. The armies on the Western Front spent the next four years trying to coordinate ever-more complicated attacks to break trench networks of increasing depth and complexity.

It was this rapid and constant innovation, rather than stodgy conservatism, that created the bloody stalemate on the Western Front. To an extent, however, this is misleading. Even the grand battles of and can only be described as such because of their geography.

Given the constraints of time and space, this article can only provide quick snap-shots of parts of the front; keep in mind that other parts were simultaneously active. The French launched the first attack in Champagne on 16 February The First Battle of Champagne in many ways set the precedent and a poor one for the shape of offensives in The French managed an acceptable initial advance and then spent a month relentlessly hammering against a solidified German line to no avail.

Undaunted, the French continued to launch and maintain such attacks throughout the year, making the deadliest year for French forces , deaths. The Battle of Neuve Chappelle March stands out as the only truly independent effort.

The small-scale battle, whilst initially successful, eventually petered out, with British troops unable to capitalize on their initial gains. Doing anything with that initial break in, however, proved exceedingly difficult. The Germans suffered a similar fate the next month in their attempt to test the trenches on the Western Front. The Germans, whose focus was overwhelmingly on the Eastern Front in where they won a series of stunning victories over Russian forces, making the largest sustained advance of the war , instigated one battle on the Western Front in Rather than hoping that the battle would win some grand strategic victory, the Second Battle of Ypres 22 April—25 May was largely designed as a testing ground for a new weapon of war: poison gas.

German forces had secretly installed a series of chemical tanks across their front line trenches, and on 22 April released their deadly chlorine gas to waft over to the French and British trenches opposite them. On their flank, Canadian troops held on doggedly for days, isolated and repeatedly attacked by German forces. Entente forces were able to recover from the momentary collapse due largely to the lack of German effort: unconvinced that the gas would be as effective as it proved, the Germans had no plan in place to exploit any possible breach in the Allied lines.

The result after a few weeks was, again, a minor territorial gain of no strategic importance for tens of thousands of casualties. The rest of followed this pattern, with few exceptions.

The French Moroccan Division and the 77 th Division managed an advance of 4. Notre Dame de Lorette was captured by the end of the battle, but Vimy remained in German hands until April , when it was finally captured by Canadian forces. Even the largest coordinated Allied battle since the Marne proved ineffective. On 25 September the French attacked simultaneously in the Champagne and Artois, while the British attacked in the direction of Loos using the same chlorine gas tactics the Germans had pioneered months earlier.

The repeated failure and excessive costs for the Entente, especially from the French attacks, shaped German strategy for the following year. Coming to power in September after the mental collapse of his predecessor, Helmuth von Moltke, the grand-nephew of the brilliant Prussian strategist of the same name Erich von Falkenhayn inherited a difficult strategic position. In the best case scenario Germany would only be worsening its logistical and strategic problems.

Falkenhayn knew that he did not have enough forces to pummel the French into submission or to push the British back into the sea. Even if he had, the inherent strength of field fortifications meant that such an effort would be unduly costly for Germany, and perhaps lead to nothing more than a pyrrhic victory. The staggering losses the French suffered in were well understood by German strategists. It was here that Falkenhayn placed his hopes. If he could force the French to attack with the same ferocity and lack of success as they had in , the French Republic could prove incapable of bearing the burden and be forced to sue for peace.

This would free up German forces to fight Russia in Eastern Europe, where they stood to annex enormous tracks of land: the Lebensraum that would tantalize extremist German strategists in both world wars. Falkenhayn deduced that the ancient fort of Verdun would be just the spot.

It was supposedly a national symbol that the French could not let pass into German hands although this interpretation has become increasingly contentious.

Counting on this, Falkenhayn launched his attack on 21 February This was a strategic offensive that relied on the strength of the tactical defensive. The French and German armies grappled for the next ten months in the longest land battle in history: the Battle of Verdun. From a German perspective the battle, at least as originally conceived, had but one purpose: to kill as many French soldiers as possible. This was attrition, conceived in its purest form.

The casualties were enormous, although fewer than one might expect from such a battle. Ultimately some , soldiers from each army were killed or wounded. The battlefield conditions were barbaric. Troops were fed mechanistically into an ever-grinding machine of fire, steel, mud, and death. French troops felt that the battle was a futile waste of lives. They expressed what they felt was the obvious lack of value placed on their lives by bleating like sheep being led to the slaughter as they marched into the Verdun salient; a bone-chilling foreshadowing of the widespread mutinies that would wrack the French army in The situation for German forces was hardly better.

Whereas French forces were rapidly and aggressively rotated in and out of the front, ensuring that troops did not have to endure more than a few days at the hellish front, German units were frequently left at the front for weeks on end. Nevertheless, the Germans very nearly pushed the French to the breaking point. Contrary to popular belief that the Somme was purely a reaction to Verdun, the battle had in fact been agreed upon as a joint Anglo-French battle in December , months before the German attack at Verdun changed the strategic dynamic of the Allied forces.

Although initially planned as another French-led battle, the Battle of the Somme became the first British-led effort. This was in large part due to the fact that the French forces were worn down in the fighting around Verdun. The only problem was that the British army, and its leader, Douglas Haig , did not feel ready to attack.

Verdun was the longest battle on the Western Front in , but the Somme was the bloodiest; it sent nearly twice as many men to their graves in half the time as at Meuse Mill.

In many ways the Somme was the archetypal Western Front battle. Many of the persistent myths and stereotypes of the First World War come from the battle or are at least attributed to it. For many Britons, the war is symbolized by the Somme; it was a microcosm of the mud, blood and horror that the war is remembered for. The battle, however, was never meant to be led by the British. Its initial form, roughly sketched out at the Chantilly Conference in , foresaw forty French divisions supported by twenty-five British.

This version of the Battle of the Somme was quickly chewed up on the banks of the Meuse. By the time the battle actually began, the French contribution was a mere twelve divisions, and it was the British army that acted as the senior partner. This not only marked an important change in the relationship between the two allies Britain could thereafter rightfully demand more independence , but it was also a chance for the British army and its new commander-in-chief, Douglas Haig, to establish their reputations.

Taft was born into a politically active family; his father had served as President Ulysses S. He attended college at Yale University, graduating second in his class. He then attended On September 15, , the new Overland Mail Company sends out its first two stages, inaugurating government mail service between the eastern and western regions of the nation.

With California booming, thanks to the Gold Rush, Americans east and west had been clamoring for Her mother and her older sister Madge also made up The famous picture of Marilyn Monroe, laughing as her skirt is blown up by the blast from a subway vent, is shot on September 15, during the filming of The Seven Year Itch. The scene infuriated her husband, Joe DiMaggio, who felt it was exhibitionist, and the couple divorced Although the town detective talked to everyone who lived on the path between the two houses, no one admitted to having seen Benoit.

Soon afterward, the Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States. Khrushchev came to power in the Soviet Union The Federal garrison inside Harpers Ferry was vulnerable to a Confederate attack